Wissahickon School Board member voices support for keeping Mattison Avenue open

WISSAHICKON — The recommendation by the Wissahickon School District to close Mattison Avenue Elementary School was an unpopular one for many in the Ambler Borough community. It lead to many community members organizing together to try to save the school and to lobby on its behalf in front of the Wissahickon School Board during two public hearings.

Now it appears their efforts may be beginning to pay off as board member Dick Stanton offered his official support for saving the school during the Nov. 12 school board meeting.

In a formal statement, Stanton said the decision to support saving the school was made after several months of testimony given regarding the issue.

Stanton said he was offering his opinion on the issue because the board is supposed to be using the next few months to deliberate on the issue before reaching a decision.

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He said the recommendation to close the school was to allow students at Mattison Avenue to move from the current K through 3 grade system to the K through 5 system so as to increase student achievement. Stanton said he tried to base his decision solely on this fact.

Stanton said when he and his wife moved to the district, they based their decision on the district as a whole with the high school being the main focus. He said the choice of elementary school did not play a part in their decision. He said if it had, the choice would have been a K through 5 school with a large campus as opposed to a K through 3 school with a smaller campus.

He said, however, that as a Realtor by profession, he cannot be successful if he’s not able to put himself into the shoes of his clients and ignore his personal preferences if they interfere with what his clients want.

“It is clear to me that the preference of a great many Mattison parents support their children to attend a smaller school,” Stanton said. “And that these parents made a conscious decision to invest collectively millions of dollars in their homes to insure this preference was achieved.

“We as a board represent these people. As much as we respect and appreciate the administration, and I truly do, in the end they answer to us and we answer to the people seated here and living around the community,” he said.

He said the board needs to be especially critical in its examination of its recommendation to close a school that so many people chose for their children. He said he would only support closing the school if there was “overwhelming evidence” in support of the educational recommendation. He said he would have to believe that despite the protests of Mattison Avenue parents, their children would be put at a disadvantage academically if the school remained open. He said while he’s seen the confidence by the administration that made the recommendation to close the school, he can’t come to the same conclusion.

“Clearly there is a greater achievement gap at Mattison than at our other schools,” he said. “When I first ran for this board I was of the opinion, and still am, that a great many number of our parents are at a disadvantage in their ability to help their children with their school work.” He said it wasn’t due to a lack of desire but rather because they had either never studied a particular subject when they were in school, or it had been so long since they did study it that they no longer remembered the material. He said the problem was magnified at Mattison Avenue because of the large population of non-English speaking parents.

“I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for them to want to help but not be able to,” he said. He said the issue needed to be addressed not just as a school district alone but as a community “to help our children.”

He said he felt moving these children to a K through 5 school would create efficiencies in communication regarding students progress, which he said would be nice, but the quality of teachers and curriculum would remain at the same high level.

Stanton said he felt other factors were in play that would be of a greater benefit than a K through 5 environment.

Stanton also addressed the active transition plan from Mattison Avenue to schools like Shady Grove Elementary, where reports of students being referred to as “Mattison kids” had many parents and students feeling as if there was some negative connotation attached to the term.

“This needs to change and use of that term I believe needs to be discontinued,” he said.

He finally said he understood there were certain parents that would prefer to send their students to Shady Grove and that some students get sent there due to overcrowding at Mattison Avenue anyway. He suggested allowing parents to send their children to Shady Grove from kindergarten on if they wished, “that way as Ambler continues to grow and Mattison gets more crowded we’re not turning students away whose parents really want them there.”

He said during the hearings the point was made that if there was any doubt about closing the school, then the board shouldn’t do it and he said he felt that was “sound advice.” He said he hoped the board would consider his opinion as it deliberates over the next two months.